Walk shows support for local teachers, staff

The last gasp of winter didn’t deter more than 70 parents, children and community members from a walk in support of Shawano School District teachers and staff April 2 through downtown Shawano.

Many carried signs showing their love for the educators who teach their children and their disappointment in administrators who recently reported that there will be a $2 million cut in the 2022-23 schools budget and listed reducing staff as one of the potential options to stop the district from hemmorhaging red ink.

For many in the crowd, it was hard to believe that the teachers who’d taught so many children were feeling demoralized, with many of them planning to leave at the end of the school year or retire early. Michael McKinnies, a local pastor with a son at Shawano Community High School, was one of the first to speak out against how district administrators were informing staff and the community about budget woes, with closing a school being one of the options until recently, and he is hopeful others will join the effort to show how valuable educators are in Shawano.

“I think the turnout is great, in spite of the weather,” McKinnies said as snow was turning to sleet in the local skate park on Elizabeth Street, the starting point for the walk. “I truly believe that it shows the support that our schools and our teachers have from the community. I couldn’t be more proud of what’s going on today.”

McKinnies believes that administrators and the Shawano School Board are slowly starting to get the message that they can’t arbitrarily make decisions like staff layoffs and school closures without considering what the impact is to local families.

“We believe that they are hearing us,” McKinnies said. “As long as we stay on topic, the board’s going to hear what we have to say, and I believe they know how supportive we are to our schools and our teachers. We want what’s best for them, as the board does, and so I appreciate that they’re opening the tables of communication to us.”

He added that board members are starting to see how important it is to include parents in the conversation, as he and others have been diligent about attending board and committee meetings. Individual board members have recently been trying to include the community conversation on agenda topics and talking with people after meetings to make sure everyone understands what’s happening.

“I think it’s making a difference,” McKinnies said. “The big thing is we want the teachers and the community and the board to all work together for a viable solution to our financial deficit.”

For McKinnies, the recent situation has also been a wake-up call to the community about what happens when they’re not involved in the schools.

“I think eyes have been opened to where we’re at, and a little more attention is going to be paid moving forward to our board meetings, the information that’s being disseminated from those meetings, and taking an active role,” McKinnies said.

Sheila Aumann has recently found herself transforming into an activist after hearing that the district might close either Olga Brener Intermediate School or Shawano Community Middle School. Even though administrators have taken the option off the table in light of public outrage, Aumann feels the community should keep the pressure up to ensure transparency.

“We need real answers. We need people who really care and not just say they care,” Aumann said. “Too many words and not enough action. It’s been lacking. I’m a parent turned community activist in just 10 days. I don’t know what happened.”

Aumann said the walk and other recent things bringing community members united against drastic budget cuts have shown the community is not going to let major decisions like this one go unchallenged, but she’s dismayed that some on the school board believe the community will support whatever the administration does.

“To talk to so many board members this week, and for them to still say, ‘We haven’t heard that from the community,’” Aumann said. “What rock are you living under? How do you not hear it? It’s bizarro.”

While she finds fault with local officials for the way the budget deficit was dropped on the community, Aumann believes that the state shares some of the blame because of the way it responded to the coronavirus pandemic by shutting down schools across Wisconsin for three months and then continuing to push for schools to close when COVID-19 cases were believed to be too high.

“I think we need to take a long, hard look at how our state responded to COVID and what it’s done to our schools and to our children and to our teachers,” Aumann said. “Enrollment goes down, what happens? Teachers leave, but those kids still need an education. Where do they go?”

Mart Grams was the only current school board member who attended the event, often being the lone opposing vote on certain actions by the administration. He expressed disappointment in the lack of support for the event from both his fellow board members and from administrators.

“You’d think there’d be a principal or somebody out here. I mean, they’re going to lose their jobs, too,” Grams said, indicating that it won’t just be the lower echelons that get laid off. “Luckily, we got the building (closure) taken off the list, but the next two options are worse.”

The two options that Grams alluded to were to simply cut staff and increase class sizes, or cut programs like technical education, which would likely include some layoffs, as well. Grams felt cutting technical education would be a mistake, given the need in the workforce for more people trained in various trades and industrial skills.

“In a community like this, or anywhere in the United States, only 10% of high school kids need to go to college — the doctors, the lawyers, the teachers, the engineers,” Grams said. “If you look at tech, 60% of the kids who graduate need to go to some tech school — the plumbers, the electricians, the carpenters, the landscapers, the folks who are tearing up my road. Why would you even think is an option?”

Grams noted that board members have been in the dark on the financial situation until recently and that it’s on Superintendent Randi Anderson to keep the board informed.

“We don’t get the information until she gives it to us,” Grams said. “Part of her reasoning was, she claims, that she didn’t want to upset the community during COVID.”

While enrollment has been on the decline for Shawano’s public schools for years, Grams said that was no guarantee that it would perpetually drop. With 200 apartments being built on Engel Drive in the city and the potential of more businesses wanting to locate to the city, that brings the possibility for more families bringing their children here and bringing enrollment back up, which would equate to more money for the schools.

“We look at problems after they happen instead of looking beforehand,” Grams said. “We’ve increased the central office, but yet we’re cutting teachers.”

lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com